Stretching back from my roots as a tournament player to my current gig as lead game designer for Sony’s Santa Monica Studio, I’ve spent over two decades in fighting games, and have been thrilled to revisit so many great memories from my own PlayStation history with the characters and stages of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

I’m here today on behalf of SuperBot Entertainment, Bluepoint Games, and Santa Monica Studio to announce that PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has gone gold on PS3 and PS Vita! All of us are extremely grateful for the help from our beta players in testing our networking, and thrilled to see the amazing response from all of you that played the beta, which is just a small slice of the full game.

In celebration of this milestone, we wanted to share something special as a small “thank you!” to all the amazing PlayStation fans who have helped us come so far. Today we’re officially unveiling the opening cinematic sequence to the game. We’ve been pretty tight-lipped about our final boss, but if you hang in until the end you’ll get a glimpse of the villainous mastermind that’s returned from the depths of PlayStation history to pull the strings in All-Stars.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and if your interest is piqued, remember to pre-order All-Stars today! Pre-ordering scores you an exclusive costume for every character in the game, and with Cross-Buy, every PS3 copy comes with a download code for the PS Vita version at the low, low cost of zero!

Thanks again to PlayStation fans around the world for your incredible support, and come November 20th, I’ll see you online — just look for the unbeatable Drake player at the top of the leaderboards. :P

Great trailer, makes me pretty dang excited. I’ve followed PSABR from almost day 1, it seems crazy it’s coming out in less than 2 weeks.

Anyway just a few random thoughts(I know your job is interacting with the game community and not that much marketing, still maybe you can pass this along):

While I will probably get/pay for any extra character DLC regardless of who they are, I think you guys should throw us a bone with some of the characters that many were asking for at day one. Heck you guys could even release these characters and make a TV ad about each one being in the game(applying the reveals to TV channels that would fit the character’s demographic would work very well).

I’m also interested in the almost non-existent support of SCEI/J games in this. Parappa, Toro, and Spike are the only characters that come to mind. They have had tons of other games that reached fairly high popularity in the west and would help for sales in Japan as well. Demon Souls, Dark Cloud, Legend of Dragoon, it’s also pretty strange to not see NIS or Yakuza character as the teams they have are fairly supportive of the PlayStation name and are quite well known.

I hate that Sony/SuperBot/whoever decided to give pre-order bonus costumes to only certain sellers and that these sellers don’t include the bonus as part of the disc but send it to you by email and they impose their own ridiculous restrictions.

Sony/SuperBot if you are giving pre-order incentives that are EXCLUSIVE to only certain sellers make it items like keychains etc. that are not actually “in-game” items.

I’ve been playing ASBRbeta for the past few weeks with only the 6 available characters. Just watching this intro made me remember ALL of the character rosters that’s going to be coming! I AM NOW RE-PSYCHED AGAIN FOR THIS GAME TO COME OUT!

So u left behind the likes of cloud and wander to put heichachi and 2 coles…. yeap pretty much describes my disappointment in the game if its true that thats the final roster…. anyways im still buying it but guys could have done a much better job….

apart of that…. its there a reverse livestock mode ala smash bros since u left behind the acclaimed out of the stage kill that we all wanted?

Gamestop & Amazon have the preorder DLC … one is online & the other is in most cities – not too hard to get the DLC … I went with GS b/c I want the game Day 1 & Amazon (with delivery) could be more up in the air …. really interested to see the single player story campaign …. of course the MP is what will make this game exciting, but it should be a blast to figure out the moves of each character …. any info on the Vita file size ? would really help.

I need to know more about the story before I can buy it. I really hope the embargo is not after release so I can preorder. I need to know if there is God of War/Dante stuff in the story. If so I can’t buy it because of religious reasons. If they are just characters in the game and non of their story comes out then no big deal.

People are so dumb sometimes. I mean I don’t want to say it but you people can be so dumb sometimes. Evil Cole DID NOT TAKE UP A SLOT FOR A CHARACTER THEY COULD HAVE GOTTEN. Evil Cole would have been there with or without the other characters. Evil Cole was Sucker Punch’s terms for using Cole. They wanted Both Evil Cole and Good Cole. They would have been in the game whether Crash or Spyro or Cloud was in the game. They needed Cole and Sucker Punch wanted Evil Cole to be part of the deal. Stop repeating crap lie a stupid parrot. Evil Cole DID NOT TAKE UP A SLOT FOR SOMEONE ELSE. He already had a slot. They didn’t say ‘Oh lets throw Crash away and put Evil Cole instead’. Stop SAYING it. You sound stupider every time you say it.

Congratz on your game being gold. Looks like it could be fun for some kids.

After the Beta, I lost all my (admittedly small) interest in this game.

But if you add more characters later (right now there/s maybe 1 character I’d want to play as) then I’d certainly be more interested.

If you ever add the Real Dante to this All Star line up (still don’t understand how new Dante, a character who has yet to appear in any game ever is already an All Star somehow…) I would buy it instantly. There are other Big Time Sony/Playstation characters that might provide the same desire, assuming the game expands.

Good luck! For me it’s a smash bros clone that’s less fun to play and has less characters I know/care about, but the potential to add content and make the game really good is there at least.

” Looks like it could be fun for some kids ” …. what a rude & condescending comment. so you feel the game is aimed at the childrens market ? indeed – given your comments, the game would be wasted on you – best to find yourself something more mature … LOL

Also it’s not like I won’t play games aimed at young people, my personal gripe with this one is the lack of characters (particularly ones I’d enjoy) and having played the Beta, it feels like a clunky, ugly smash bros clone (yea yea other games existed too, but SB is what I’ve played).

Doesn’t help with my opinion of the game that the trailer/video on this blog makes the graphics for the game look far better than they actual are (from the Beta).

@67 – clunky & ugly are not adjectives I would have used in my description of the Beta – I thought the Vita version was visually gorgeous – & that’s with only 6 characters & 2 levels ….. you must know that “betas” are not the finished product & that improvements will be made right ? anyway, under 30 hardly would be described children … I’m 46 – loved the Beta – preordered. thrilled to hear that the 20 character roster will have optional DLC choices …. I think this is going to be a lot of fun – takes strategy to get your AP up & good timing to deploy your kills … wish the Beta was still live, we had fun with our daily battles – 2 vs 2 is a blast !

-Sigh-
People seem to believe it’s ONLY Superbot’s fault at why some characters are not in the final version, It doesn’t matter how much money Superbot/Sony throw at a developer/IP Holder as Chan Park said “It takes two to tango” I’m sure Superbot has tried their hardest to get as many characters in the game as possible, but you can’t expect them stop development until they are able to get certain characters, and stop saying Big Daddy, Heihachi, Dante, and Raiden are taking up slots, they aren’t, the developers of those characters obviously want them in the game so Superbot said yes, made the deal, and bam more characters. There is always room for DLC, so show support for the game, and maybe Square Enix will allow some of their characters in Allstars!

When’s Plus coming to Vita ? I want to buy one for PS All Stars and Persona Golden but I’m still waiting to hear about plus for Vita…..have you guy’s forgotten or did someone realize there aren’t enough games out there to start dishing them out for Rent/Plus ?

Please make an announcement, good or bad at some point in the near future. I have the cash sitting here…waiting to buy if Plus is really happening. It’s great on PS3.

Here is the feedback…if these issues won’t get resolved ASAP, PSASBR will be the FAIL of the year.

1) Connection: messages like “the game could not negociate the with server”.

2) I take Kratos, and start the fight with Sly or Sweet Tooh, or any other character.

3) My invited friend could not see the enemies, but I could.

4)Many player are asking for some characters in PSASBR, like Gabe Logan, and what Sony do? Continue to treat the character like he never existed. I thought PSASBR would be a tribute to games of actual and pasr generations, but I guess I’m wrong. Gabe Logan has three games on PS1, one on PS2 and two on PSP. He deserves to be in the game mor theb Fat Princess and Parappa, both not having more than twi games each, and ARE in the game! That’s ridiculous!

I already explained using the word ‘kid’ is a verbal habit of mine I use to address anyone under 30/my age. Heck I even call people older than me kid. (many older people address younger men as ‘son’, does that mean they think it’s a child? NO)

I never said anything about children. The fact that you seem fixated on that word when it was never used is, frankly, disturbing.

Anyway clunky and ugly are of course personal impressions, I don’t expect everyone to agree with my opinion.

You liked the Beta, I didn’t, you like the roster, I don’t. Not sure why you need to jump all over me for my opinions. I’m posting here so the people involved with the game know not everyone wants it, sometimes negative feedback = influencing future patches/DLC to get more sales.

My posts were for the person who wrote the blog to notice, if you wanna get butthurt and obsess over the word children (that I never used) that’s your problem.

@77 …. gosh dude, you seem butt hurt – your original statement said the game might be good for some “kids” …. so my use of the word children is not out of line …. anyway, presentation of information is half the battle. & this is a public forum & as such, I too am allowed to reply – & wanted other readers to be aware that not all folks thought this game was “clunky & ugly” as you apparently found it to be. you are well within your right to boycott the game – by all means do ….

I pre-ordered from GameStop to get the additional costumes. I checked the PlayStation site, and there are more pre-order bonus costumes there. So I ask, do you get more costumes from PlayStation, or do you get the same amount of costumes regardless of where you pre-order?

I want the old store. This new store sucks. To slow. To many screens to purchase/download a demo. No search function for download history. Fix it. Update it. Patch it. Whatever. I may just be one voice, but i’ll continue to complain. I love me some ps3, but this new store is a mess. Get on the ball sony. Listen to your customers. Everyone wanted a search for our download history. How could you fail to give us that at the very least.

To everyone asking for Crash, Cloud, Spyro and the like please don’t be mad at Superbot.

These guys have tried really hard to get them in the game and all it comes down to is the license holders for all those characters either giving them a solid no since this is the first game and they want to see how it goes. Or they asked for alot of money and Superbot couldn’t give it to them.

So please give them a break. I understand there are ALOT of characters I want in this game mainly from PS1 and PS2/PSP days. But it’s going to take time for other companies to trust their characters and IP’s with Superbot. Buy the game and support them if you want others to be confident enough to lend Superbot more characters for the sequel. If there is one.

Right now this game is very Western catered. People like Cloud, any Persona Protaganist (They’ve been on literally every PS system only and are hugely popular in Japan) even the damn Protaganist from Yakuza series Kazuma Kiryu would make this game WAY more appealing to the east. Characters like Heihachi and Raiden and Toro were great calls.

I’m buying the game just from the amount of work they put in to make it amazingly fun with characters I already love.

Now thats what I’m talking about! Fantastic trailer, much more effective than the live action one. Great marketing efforts, I’d like to see more of this. Everyone needs to support this game, I think its really gonna turn heads and surprise people. Good job SSM!

oh and I preorderd about 3 months ago, so I will be on day one hopefully gamestop has a midnight release, even if someone does not like fighting games this is more than that so I hope anyone in question gets it, for the love of the history, characters, and playstation.

@ LuiSpartanMIMIMI . It’s a beta. It’s not supposed to play like a dream. That is why it’ a beta. So they can find what to fix and what to adjust. Obviously the final game won’t be same. They were testing the servers and the game itself so of course there will be hiccups. I mean how dense can you be? Did you expect a beta to run smooth as silk. If it did then it wouldn’t be a beta TEST would it? Also how dom you know they are ignoring Gabe? Do you work for Sony? Gabe doesn’t belong to them so how do you know they didn’t try to get him and the developer refused? They have Parappa and Fat Princes because they asked those developers and they agreed not because they forgo other characters for others. I mean how dense can you be. You keep demanding things that don’t belong to someone and expect the developer that owns them to play ball. The people that own Gabe don’t care about nostalgia, fonboyism or what you want. They don’t have to give you or Superbot the character if they don’t want to like you seem to think they do. They don’t share the same entitlement theory you do. You want Gabe? They don’t care what you want. It is no skin off their nose if they refuse.

Am I the only one who watched this and thought: I wish this is how the actual game looked and played? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve already pre-ordered the game, and participated in the beta, but I think a 3D arena brawler with these characters would have appealed to a broader base of players, deflected the accusations of this game being a Smash Bros. clone, and probably made a more interesting game. Maybe they could do something along those lines on the new platform, along the lines of a PlayStation All Stars 3D. I’m stoked to play this game in a couple weeks but I also hope the crew at SuperBot are thinking BIG for the follow-up!

Congrats Superbot on making such a cool game. My friend and I played a Sly/Radec team in the beta and not only are we pumped to play the whole roster, but most of all we really hope that the competitive scene really picks up on how awesome the 2v2 matches are. Nov. 20th just can’t come soon enough!!!

Yes i used the word kids, then after your first post in reponse, I explained the meaning of my use (Ie it had nothing to do with children).

Then you posted a reply to that post, again claiming i was saying it’s a game for children even though I went out of my way to clarify that wasn’t my meaning.

So to me it seemed you only cared about the wording of my posts and the kid/children issue and not the actual gameplay problems I have with the game.

So I’ll be more careful in the future using the word ‘kid’ in an online forum so I don’t need to walk certain people through how language works and can be used differently by different people. (kid = pretty much anyone, like saying ‘son’ or ‘boy’ or ‘people’, in this context)

I’ve been calm and happy this whole time, I just wanted to voice my problems with the game. I was very excited when it was announced, but with every week since my interest has dropped.

Of course you get your opinion too, I was just surprised you attacked me over a non issue.